DeSales Trading Company, Inc is a textile business focused on the buying and selling of off-grade yarns is based in Burlington, North Carolina USA. Since 1969, when DeSales Trading Company was founded, our company has maintained direct relationships with yarn producers, texturizers and yarn spinners by purchasing off-grade yarns. Off-grade yarns are sometimes referred to as B-Grade Yarns, Substandard Yarns or Stock-lot yarns – they mean the same thing: the yarns are not first quality yarns. With this in mind, it is in the interest of the producer, texturizer or spinner to relieve their inventory of off-grade yarns and the best way to handle off-grade yarns, from an accounting point of view, is to sell the yarn off on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Buy and Selling off grade yarns since 1969

Just because a yarn has been classified as an “off-grade yarn”, it does not mean the yarn will not perform. The yarn simply has to be used in a non-critical or what is referred to as a “low end-use”.

Off-grade yarns, are yarns that do not meet the first quality standards of the company that made the yarns. There are many reasons why yarns are downgraded to an off-grade quality standard. For example, the yarn might have some denier or count variation. When a first quality 40 denier elastomeric/spandex yarn is sold as FIRST QUALITY the yarn is an exact 40 denier. Not a 39 denier or a 41 denier – the 40 denier yarn is a 40 denier yarn! With an off-grade elastomeric yarn there could experience some denier variation. Because of this reason we suggest that an off-grade elastomeric yarn only be knit with another spun yarn – not just with a filament yarn or in a tricot knit application.

With a spun yarn, like cotton, the count variation is a reason why the yarn could be classified as an off-grade yarn. Also, a yarn could be ‘soiled’ with dirt, oil from the spinning frame or texturing machine. Typically, after the ‘soiled’ yarn is knit and then finished the fabric will not show signs of being ‘soiled’.

A package of off-grade yarn could have poor winding. This means a unit(s) of yarn was not properly wound onto the cone or tube. Typically, if this is the case, if the poor winding is only on either of the top or bottom the yarn should still deliver off the package. Sometimes in working with winding issues the off-grade yarn might need to be placed on a slower running knitting machine or a yarn covering machine set on a slower speed. However, if the poor winding is on both the top and the bottom the yarn might have issues with delivering off the package. If a yarn will not deliver off the package the yarn should be classified as waste – not yarn.

Sometimes yarns are classified as off-grade due to the package of yarn is not the perfect shape of a first quality yarn package. The textile industry refers to this classification as a malformed package. This still does not prevent the yarn from being used.

Off-grade yarns can mean the package of yarn is not a ‘metered’ package. Typically, with first quality yarns there is an exact amount of yarn on each and every package. Every package has the exact same amount of yarn on the tube or cone, known as a “metered package”. With non-metered package the amount of yarn on the tube or cone can vary – having too much or too little yarn on the package. This still does not prevent the yarn from being used.